Justin Masterson continues to make his Spring Training demand for $17 million a year a running joke, this time by giving up seven earned runs in 4.1 innings of work.

Nick Swisher and Carlos Santana — mercifully moved down in the order by Francona — contributed absolutely nothing in nine plate appearances.

The Defense made two more errors, including another one on Nick Swisher.

Ryan Raburn has an OPS of .454… there’s not much to say, he looks atrocious and shouldn’t be on a major league roster at this point.

Jose Ramirez is a dumpster fire offensively — that’s just a fact.

This feels like 2008 all over again, but somehow worse.

Goose

I was going to comment that this feels exactly like 2008, then I saw it was the last thing you wrote. At least I’m not the only one thinking it.

Bob

Let’s see. Masterson should have taken what was offered. Then we would have milking the finances:

Masterson – an ace; ah, er, not even the staff ace
Santana – his best month in the majors was his first
Bourn – he’s headed towards 2nd… oops you have got to get on base first
Axford – walk em.
Swisher – and we thought last year was abnormal
Raburn – should never be signed to even-numbered years

Can you send them all down to the minors?

Oddly enough, Swisher + Santana <= Chisenhall. There is hope. Hopefully Aguilar will recover and get a hit and then some. How many hits did he get in Spring training?

Did Cleveland let Kazmir go because they thought injuries would creep up? Yes I did think the A's overpaid. Double oops.

Sarcasm out…

Sean Porter

Went to the game today, and since the only good thing about it was the weather, I’ll just offer up this observation:

The Gateway people, when designing the sports complex, must have been clairvoyant. They must have known that one day the likes of Justin Bieber, and today, Lady Gaga, would play at the Gund/Quicken Loans Arena – and that putting the Browns Stadium where Jacobs/Progressive Field would have caused a riot.

As I’m walking out of the park after the game, I walked right past the “eclectic” throng that makes up Lady Gaga’s fanbase. I then imagined what would have happened if drunk, most likely angry Browns fans would have made that same walk.

Tom Chema, you are a genius, sir! ;o)

Jeremy

That might be one of the funniest “What if..” posts I’ve read.

Gvl Steve

Oh my God. What happened to this ball club?

shaun

there’s only so much tito can do. i am finding it really embarrassing watching this team play ball. brantley, murphy, chisenhall, morgan have been good but we need more than that. i wouldn’t throw in the towel until the all star game but we’re 10.5 games behind the tigers who are just lethal right now. we are currently marginally better than the astros…say that to yourself again. things are not looking good

mondo dentro

I find it hard to believe that Tito came on board without extracting some assurances that the Dolans were going to get the talent needed to win. I’m going to blow a gasket if we just keep hearing the same whining excuses about how we’re a small market team. Tito’s honeymoon isn’t just over—it crashed, burned, and exploded in a ball of flames.

Jeremy

You know, before the season started I was very concerned. Everything just seemed to break right for the Tribe last season; winning one run games, hits with 2 outs and RISP, two pitchers resurrecting their careers, solid defensive plays……

I was just worried that it couldn’t all fall into place again and it looks everything that went right last season is going wrong this season. Too many errors, inconsistent starting pitching, and lackluster hitting. Even the BP which was solid to start the season is beginning to falter.

We gotta lot of baseball left to play, but with the Tigers on a tear and the Indians cast to the depths of the AL Central basement….we got a long way to go. smh

mondo dentro

I hear you, but what’s happening here is not just a statistical fluctuation from last year. Your concern still would be valid if everyone was playing near the level they were last year: then the Tribe would play decently, but not quite have the gas to get to 90+ wins. But, we’re waaaaaay beyond not having things “fall into place”. The overall quality of play is truly embarrassing. We have multiple players on track to having career-worst years, and even team or league worst years. I’m really mystified how the collapse happened, but I’ve gotta think there’s a huge psychological component—and the danger of that is that psychology is contagious. Even the top performers play worse when the energy level drops through the floor.

Personally, I think letting everyone strut around during the off-season and shoot their mouths off about “unfinished business” is coming back to haunt us. The team knows they look like a laughing stock, and it’s hard to recover from that.

Sean Porter

That is the strange this about this year compared to last:

Who on the Tribe in 2013 had a fantastic year, a year that was way above their norm? I could argue that only Ubaldo and his last four months really qualify. Really, no one last year played “over their head”, thus, I wouldn’t have guessed this type of dropoff this season.

Sean Porter

*…strange thing about…

Peter

If they were complaining about attendance last year, just wait! My son went to yesterday’s game and he should get some sort of refund or compensation. Time to start looking at the clippers.